[Rarebooks] FS: Outspoken 1835 Cabinetmaker's Guide

[Joslin Hall Rare Books, ABAA]

>From our new SUMMER, 2007 catalog-
<http://www.joslinhall.com/Catalog_current.htm>


Brown, Richard. "THE RUDIMENTS OF DRAWING CABINET AND UPHOLSTERY
FURNITURE: comprising Instructions for designing and delineating the
different articles of those branches geometrically and perspectively;
thereby producing the effect each piece will have when executed: and
shewing by a scale the real measures for the workman. Illustrated by
Appropriate Diagrams and Designs, Proportioned upon Architectural
Principles, After the Manner of the Antique, on Twenty-five Plates, each
accompanied with explanatory remarks.

London; printed for M. Taylor: 1835.

First published in 1820, this is one of the most singular and outspoken
cabinetmaking books of the 19th century, and was also the first devoted in
large part to the new Greek Revival style in furniture. An architect and
designer in London, Brown introduced several elements which were to become
Victorian mainstays, among them the rounded form which became so popular
later in the century (Joy). He was moved to write, like many others both
before and since, by a disatisfaction with his contemporaries' work. He
deals with both Chippendale and Sheraton in a single sentence, criticising
their "trivial compositions... taken from the models of the French school
of about the middle of the last century, now obsolete" and then for good
measure slam dunks Chippendale by further commenting that of the two
Sheraton "is the one most worthy of notice." He has no use, however, for
Sheraton's attempts at delineating a system of geometry for cabinetmakers,
noting his "entangling vanishing points, and crossing the diagrams in a
confused and cobweb-like manner..." (he would not be the first, or last,
to find fault with Sheraton's geometry).

Brown believed that the study of earlier times held the key to tasteful
decoration. He tolerated the Egyptians (whose designs were "more to be
admired for their sublimity than true elegance"), despised the Romans
("pompous... covered every part of their works with ornaments in wanton
profusion...and render their productions one indistinguishable mass") and
admired the Greeks, "who have displayed a taste hitherto unequaled, and
that fills the enlightened world with admiration."

When dealing with ornament, Brown truly reached his stride. He stated "All
ornaments introduced into furniture should be rich, graceful and
consistent, and not of the vulgar kind: the passionflower, for instance,
is extremely rich, the sun-flower vulgar, although we frequently see it
introduced, with dolphins, shells, and other incongruous appendages, on
the poles of window curtains." He advises against use of "serpents and
other obnoxious reptiles, to which we have a natural antipathy." His
imagination was unlimited: a dressing table should have the decorations of
plants which produce perfume; sofas need decoration denoting comfort, for
instance couch flower and heartsease; for a table for playing cards
"perhaps the mask of Comus, the god of festivals and mirth, will be found
to accord.". Since Brown comments in this vein on every piece of
furniture, the book is quite entertaining reading. The designs include a
wide variety of tables as well as chests, bookcases, seats, sofas, beds
and other pieces, and also several room designs; the pieces are
interesting, often very dramatic. Needless to say, the perspective is
perfect.

Bound at the back, but paginated within the sequence of the main book, is
“An Elucidation on the Principles of Drawing Ornaments, Exemplified on
Seven Plates”, first published in 1822.

Hardcover. 10”x11.5", xvi + 87 pages, plus 25 + 7 plates. Bound in the
publisher’s original printed boards, covers somewhat scuffed and soiled.
Rebacked, with a new, sympathetic spine, and new endpapers. Some light
internal spotting and a little soil. Ex-institutional, with a number on
the margin of the frontispiece and several numbers written on the
copyright page. A nice copy in the original pasteboard covers. [31026]
$3,000.00

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